TRENTON
– Attorney General Peter C. Harvey
today released the results of a new, statewide
report on illegal street gang activity
that places the number of street gang
members operating in New Jersey at nearly
17,000, and the number of gangs at nearly
700.

Based on a 2004 State Police Gang Bureau
survey of law enforcement personnel in
the 479 municipalities that maintain full-time
police departments – 91 percent
of those departments responded -- the
survey provides the most comprehensive,
law-enforcement-based estimate of street
gang membership in New Jersey to date.

Attorney General Harvey said that, in
addition to providing a statistical picture
of the street gang presence in New Jersey,
the 2004 survey offers compelling anecdotal
evidence that gang activity is on the
rise statewide. For example:

In 44 percent of the municipalities
in which an active street gang presence
was reported, gang activity was said
by police to have increased compared
to the previous year.

In
37 percent of municipalities that reported
no street gang presence during a similar
survey done in 2001, police now report
that there is gang activity taking place.

In 39 percent of responding suburban
municipalities, police reported the
presence of gangs in their towns, an
increase of 27 percent compared to 2001.

“We
have made many gang-related arrests, and
conducted many successful gang-related
prosecutions. We have launched a number
of gang-prevention initiatives that are
already making a difference in young lives.
Despite these efforts, New Jersey continues
to have a significant problem with street
gangs and related community violence,
” said Attorney General Harvey during
a press conference today at the Hughes
Justice Complex.

Joining Harvey at the press conference
were State Police Superintendent Col.
Joseph R. Fuentes and Division of Criminal
Justice Director Vaughn L. McKoy. Also
attending were Dr. Duane Dyson, Chairman
of the Violence Prevention Institute,
and Dr. Robert Johnson, Chairman of Pediatrics
and Director of Adolescent and Young Adult
Medicine at the University of Medicine
and Dentistry of New Jersey.

“Too
many young people are being maimed or
killed in gang-related violence, and too
many innocent citizens are being impacted
when that violence takes place on the
street, which it often does,” said
the Attorney General. “Collectively,
we have to stop being reactive to the
gang problem, and begin to address it
through comprehensive and collaborative
prevention strategies. Of course, we cannot
begin to effectively deal with the gang
problem until we fully understand it,
which surveys like this are helping us
to do.”

In conducting the 2004 gang survey, said
Superintendent Fuentes, State
Police asked municipal law enforcement
agencies to respond to a detailed questionnaire
about gang activity in their communities.
Some of the surveys were done in the form
of a telephone interview between State
Police personnel and the chief of a department,
or the chief’s designee. Other surveys
were done by mail, although the questions
posed were the same in both cases.

Current
Gang Membership

Fuentes said that, according to the 2004
survey, there are 28 gangs in New Jersey
made up of 100 or more members. Those
gangs account for more than half of all
gang members throughout the state. The
survey results also indicate that, despite
evidence of gang proliferation in the
suburbs, inner-city neighborhoods continue
to be the principal home ground for street
gangs. Approximately 70 percent of gang
members reported in the 2004 survey were
reported by police in New Jersey’s
urban centers.

The three gangs consistently mentioned
by local police agencies as their most
serious problem were the Bloods, Crips
and Latin Kings. Those three gangs also
have the largest estimated aggregate membership:
Bloods (4,000), Latin Kings (2,345) and
Crips (2,100).

According to other survey results:

Approximately
17 percent of all reported homicides
in New Jersey involve gang members.

There
are more than an estimated 2,300 gang
members in New Jersey under age 15.
Statewide, 18-to-24-year-olds form the
largest single sub-group of gang members,
followed by 15-to-17-year-olds, and
then those older than 24.

Within
the estimated statewide membership of
16,700 gang members, the ratio of male
gang members to female gang members
is about 9-to-1. However, 22 street
gangs were reported to have a female
membership of 25 percent or more.

The
majority of identified street gangs
– about 76 percent – are
made up of members from the same racial
and ethnic backgrounds. (30 percent
black, 29 percent hispanic, 15 percent
white, less than 1 percent Asian). Multi-racial
or multi-ethnic gangs made up about
14 percent of all gangs reported in
the 2004 survey. For the remainder of
street gangs identified by police, no
information was provided on racial/ethnic
composition.

The
former head of the State Police gang unit,
Fuentes noted that is sometimes difficult
to obtain reliable information about gang
activity. For example, a group of lawbreakers
that appears to function as a street gang
may disband due to poor organization or
lack of sustained interest, only to re-emerge
later and once again become active. Other
street gangs, meanwhile, may operate in
multiple jurisdictions at the same time,
or on a shifting basis, making it difficult
to determine if their membership constitutes
one outlaw gang or several.

“Developing reliable information
that helps us understand gang activity
-- and then keeping that information current
-- is the challenge that confronts us,”
said Fuentes. “By its very nature,
the process of quantifying the gang problem,
identifying regions of the state where
gangs are most prevalent, and understanding
the nature of gang activity is an inexact
science. However, this survey provides
a great deal of useful information on
gangs for law enforcement, policy makers,
and the public at large.”

Dr. Dyson, of the Violence Prevention
Institute, said such information is essential
to targeting street gang education and
violence-prevention-related efforts.

“The
problem of youth violence and gang involvement
is a complicated issue that has the potential
to destroy the fabric of our communities
and this nation,” said Dyson. “As
community leaders, we must fight this
plague with all available resources, starting
at the grass roots level. Youth violence
must be dealt with through intervention
and education. If we choose not to do
so, there will be a continuing cycle of
despair.”

Dr. Johnson, the UMDNJ Director of Adolescent
and Young Adult Medicine, said that “no
teenager is immune to the seductive power
of gangs and gang membership. “

”For
many young people, these often violent
social structures provide a powerful response
to their need to belong and be accepted,”
said Dr. Johnson. “In view of this
reality, we need to find more and better
ways to strengthen families and strengthen
communities. Stepped up enforcement efforts
alone, no matter how vigorous or well-intended,
will not get the job done.”

Comparison With Prior Gang Surveys

In 2001, a State Police street gang survey
found there were an estimated 7,500 gang
members and nearly 300 gangs – fewer
than half the number of gang members and
gangs reported in the 2004 survey. However,
Attorney General Harvey urged perspective
when considering the degree of increase
suggested by numbers reported in the 2001
and 2004 surveys.

While the newest survey results provide
convincing statistical and anecdotal evidence
that street gang activity is on the rise,
he said, some of the stark contrast in
data between the 2001 and 2004 studies
may also have to do with fundamental differences
in survey methodology, and in levels of
police participation.

For example, the 2001 gang survey excluded
from consideration any motorcycle gangs,
hate or “ideology” groups
and/or prison gangs. The 2004 survey more
broadly defined gangs -- consistent with
language drawn from the New Jersey Criminal
Code -- as “three or more people
who are associated in fact ... people
who have a common group name, identifying
sign, tattoos or other indicia of association,
and who have engaged in criminal offenses
while engaged in gang-related activity.”

Law enforcement participation levels were
also significantly higher in the 2004
survey compared with 2001.

Three years ago, the State Police survey
sample consisted of about 200 police departments
chosen because one or more of their personnel
had attended State-Police-sponsored gang
awareness training.

In 2004, the target survey sample was
expanded to include each of the 479 full-time
police departments in the State. Of those,
439 responded, while 40 departments either
did not reply in time, or simply did not
respond.

“While
it is by no means the final word on the
subject, this survey is vital, because
it is helping us to develop as comprehensive
and accurate a picture of street gang
activity as possible,” said Division
of Criminal Justice Director McKoy. “Whether
we are talking about targeted street gang
enforcement activity, or about gang awareness
and prevention programs, the first step
for law enforcement is to have a reliable
frame of reference.”

Said Attorney General Harvey, “I
applaud the full-time municipal police
departments of New Jersey, because their
level of responsiveness to the survey
was excellent. With relatively few exceptions,
local law enforcement has demonstrated
a readiness to work with us cooperatively,
and candidly, to identify the scope and
nature of the gang problem, which is the
first step toward effectively combating
it.”